The 2024 election saw the Democratic Party lose the presidential election between President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with the party also losing control of the Senate and failing to retake the House. In reflecting on what the future holds for her party, Abrams expressed hope the party could look to former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday, and the “innovation” he brought to the party in the 1970s.
JIMMY CARTER TO LIE IN STATE AT CAPITOL BEFORE FUNERAL
“When he won the presidency in 1976, he did something no one had ever done: this governor from Georgia took himself to Iowa and essentially remade Democratic politics,” Abrams said on MSNBC. “We have to remake how we think about our future. We have to do it by understanding the complexity of where we are but by having a vision for what is to come. I think more than anything what Jimmy Carter tells us about the politics of the south is that we are constantly learning, we have absolutely every opportunity with each election to pick something new to be braver than we were the time before.”
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, the Washington Examiner’s Tiana Lowe Doescher suggested the party needs to address two major factors going forward: its perception that it has “geriatric” leadership and ditching its “unpopular” policies.
On the topic of Trump’s victory, Abrams said it was not the “seismic shift” that some have portrayed it to be, pointing to how Trump won the popular vote by about 1.5% and only won “less than 50% of the electorate.” In the Electoral College, Trump managed to win all seven battleground states over Harris, including Nevada, a state not won by a Republican candidate since former President George W. Bush sought reelection in 2004.
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With Democrats entering 2025 without control of the White House, Senate, or House, the Washington Examiner’s Byron York argued the party has “no one” to lead its opposition to Trump or his agenda. As part of the next steps for the party, he encouraged its members to have a proper debate about what went wrong in 2024, be it a messaging problem or the policies it pushed.
Among Republicans, Trump has sought to unify his party ahead of the vote for House speaker this Friday, which could get the party’s 2025 off to a rough start. The president-elect has given his endorsement to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to retain his seat, though it is not yet clear if the speaker has enough votes.
